Placard



March 7, 1944.

PLACARD Filed June 14, 1941 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 E. F. BLECHTA 3, v

E. F. BLECHTA PLACARD Filed June 14, 1941 March 7, 1944.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Mar. 7, 1944 7.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE PLAOARD Edward F. Blechta, Berwyn, Ill.

Application June 14, 1941, Serial No. 398,092

(01. ill-124.1)

Claims.

This invention relates to a placard and more particularly to such a device that is of a simple, inexpensive, easily fabricated and attractive structure especially adapting it for use in the commercial advertising field, though not restricting it to this use.

The objects of the present invention further include:

The provision of a placard upon which a common subject is depicted upon different parts which are relatively adjustable to enhance the three dimensional display of the subject.

The provision of a placard device of the easel type operable to display its subject in one pose while resting upon a substantially flat surface, and being provided with a frangible line or the equivalent along which the device can be broken for removal of a part and thereby render it operable to display the subject in an alternative pose.

A placard according to any of the above objects and of the self-supporting collapsible type.

These and other desirable objects will become apparent from the following description and the appended claims, together with the annexed drawings, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a front elevational view of a part of a placard constructed according to the principles of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a front elevational view of a part attachable complementally to the part shown in Fig. 1 in forming the placard;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of a foldable prop adapted to be assembled on the back of the placard part shown in Fig. 1, to serve with the parts shown in Figs. 1 and '2 in completing the device and making a self-supporting easel type of structure;

Fig. 4 is a back elevational view of the completely assembled device set up for use;

Fig. 5 is a horizontal sectional view looking downwardly upon the line 5-5 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the completely assembled device set up for use in one of its alternative arrangements;

Fig. '7 is a side elevational view of the device set up as illustrated in Figs. 4 and 6;

Fig. 8 is a side elevational view of the device in its folded or collapsed condition which adapts it for packaging; and

Fig. 9 is a perspective view taken generally from the front and illustrating the device set up for use in the other of its alternative conditions.

The device herein illustrated is preferably assembled from stampings of suitably .stifi sheet material such as cardboard. One of these stampings is indicated generally at ID in Fig. 1, it comprising an upper body portion ll shaped according to the outline of a human torso l2 and head l3, and a seat portraying portion M on which there is depicted a stool consisting of a standard [5 having a seat i6 thereon. The upper body portion I l is preferably colored or otherwise shaded to impart to this part of the device a pictorial significance corresponding to its silhouette outline. There may be an extension I! upon the upper body portion H to have printed thereon advertising matter such as printed words, indieating something being said by the portrayed subject.

The upper body portion II i set off from the seat portraying portion 14 by perforated lines I8 and IS, the material from which the device is formed being sufiiciently thick and stiff, and the perforations in the lines l8 and I9 being sufficiently proximate to cause the stamping to be frangible along these lines. There depends from the upper body portion l an articulated ligature or tab 20 by means of which a lower body portion 2| shown in Fig. 2 is attachable to the device as presently described. The tab 20 is actually out out of the lower body portion l4 and when bent forwardly therefrom about a fold line 22 leaves an opening 23 in said seat portraying portion. It will be noted that the tab 20 bears printed matter complemental with the printed matter upon the portion M in portraying the seat l6 and the adjacent part of the seat standard IS.

A fold line 24 divides the root part of the tab 29 from a securing part 25 thereof wherefore the latter is readily bent upwardly about the fold line 24. Subsequently to bending the tongue 23 in this manner the then forward side of its section 25 will be connected with an upper backside section of the lower body portion 2| which portrays, in the present instance, legs complemental With the torso and head portrayed upon the upper body portion H. The connection between the tab 29 and the lower body portion 2| may be efiected by an adhesive or small comparatively invisible staples.

In Fig. 3 there is shown a prop member P which is also constructed of sheet material as cardboard This member has a base portion 26 for attachment as by means of an adhesive to the back of the stamping ill in the manner illustrated in 4, the part 26 being separated from a wing portion 2'! by a'vertical fold line 28. A frangible section 29 formed by a horizontal periorated line 33 of perforations traversing the baseportion 26 and an intersecting line 3i of perforations in the wing portion 21. These lines and 3| are arranged in this relatively angular position so they will occupy a common horizontal plane when the wing member 21 is turned backwardly at right angles to the base portion 26 as illustrated in Figs. 4 and '7. There is the usual locking tab 32 cut from the body of the prop member P and bendable backwardly about a fold line 33 to carry a notch 34 therein into interlocking association with a notch in the wing part 27 when the latter is bent at right angles to the base portion 26, to thus retain the wing member in the propping position. A tab 32 in the upper part of the prop member is foldable backwardly about a fold line 33' for carrying a notch 34' into interlocking relation with a notch 35' to serve as an auxiliary locking means for holding the wing 21 in the perpendicular position illustrated in Figs. 4 and 5.

The completely fabricated device is adapted to be set up from the collapsed condition illustrated in Fig. 8 wherein the prop member P, while in the flat condition, and the lower body portion 2i are disposed flatly adjacently to and in respective planes parallel with that occupied by the stamping H]. In setting up the device for use as upon a fiat surface 36 illustrated in Fig. 6, the wing 2 of the prop member will be bent backwardly 90 degrees about the fold line 28 and the tabs 32 and 32' bent backwardly about their fold lines 33 and 33' in the fashion illustrated in Figs. 4 and 5. The device will then be placed upon the surface 36 with the lower edge 37 of the seat portraying portion M upon the surface 36 and with the lower edge 38 of the wing member 27 also upon said surface. It will be observed in Figs. 6, 7 and 8 that one of the legs, 39, of the lower body portion 2! is sufficiently long for its lower end to engage the surface 36 and be retained thereby forwardly of the seat portraying portion M. The articulated tab 20 which pivotally secures the 1ower body portion 2| to the device as its section 25 connected at such a position upon said member 2| adjacently to its upper edge 43 that said upper edge will occupy a position somewhat above the lower edge 4! of the upper body portion ll. Ifhe tab 20 is also adapted to maintain the upper part of the lower body portion 2! slightly forwardly of the upper body portion H, and this together with maintaining the upper edge 40 above the lower edge 4| while the lower body portion 2| occupies an inclined position illustrated in Fig. 7, causes the device to possess a life-like three-dimensional effect.

The device is adapted for alternative use with the seat portraying portion l4 and that part of the prop member P below the frangible section 29 removed, these parts being readily removed by simply breaking them away along the perforations. When the device is so conditioned it is adapted to rest adjacently to the edge 42 of a surface 43 while the upper body portion Ii is maintained in substantially the upright position by the remaining part of the wing member 21 and while the lower body portion 2| depends over and downwardly from the edge 42. When used in this position the present device gives to the subject the effect of sitting naturally upon the surface 43.

While I have herein shown and described a single embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited thereto but comprehends other constructions, arrangements of parts, de-

tails, features or the like encompassed by the spirit thereof.

I claim:

1. In a placard having a lower edge upon which it is adapted to rest, a generally upright seat portraying portion of which the portrayed seat constitutes part of a pictorial subject, an upper body portion at and extending upward from the upper edge of the seat portraying portion and portraying a human torso disposed upright upon such seat, a lower body p rtion portraying human legs complemental with said torso, means pivotally supporting the lower body portion with its upper part slightly above and forwardly of the lower part of said torso, and said pivot means facilitating forward displacement of the lower part of said lower body portion.

2. The combination set forth in claim 1, and wherein the lower body portion is of a length that its lower edge is adapted to engage a substantially flat supporting surface for the placard to retain said lower part of such portion spacedly in front of the seat portraying portion.

3. In a placard having a lower edge upon which it is adapted to rest, a seat portraying portion bearing such lower edge, an upper body portion divided from the seat portraying portion by a frangible section and portraying a human torso as part of a subject, a lower body portion portraying a torso appendage as a part of said subject, means pivotally connecting the lower body portion to the upper body portion and with its upper part adjacent to and slightly forward of the lower part of said torso, means operable for propping the placard t cause it to rest generally in the upright position upon said lower edge and conditionable to prop the upper body portion for resting generally in the upright position upon its lower edge subsequent to separation of the seat portraying portion at the frangible section and while the lower body portion depends downwardly over an edge of a supporting surface for the placard.

4. In an easel type of placard device, an upper body portion portraying part of a subject, a seat portraying portion depicting a seat upon which the subject appears to rest and divided from the upper body portion by a frangible section, a lower body portion also portraying a part of said subject, means effecting a pivotal connection between said upper and lower body portions to support the lower portion slightly forward of the upper portion for fore and aft pivotal displacement, prop means secured to the back of said upper body portion and having a frangible section aligned substantially horizontally with the aforesaid frangible section, and the part of the prop means below its associated frangible section and said seat portraying portion being removable from the device along said frangible sections to adapt said device for resting upon a supporting surface while the lower body portion projects over and downwardly from an edge thereof.

5. In a collapsible easel type of placard device, an upper sheet-like body portion portraying part of a subject upon its obverse face, a sheet-like seat portraying portion integral with the upper body portion and portraying upon its obverse face a seat upon which the subject appears to rest, there being a frangible section dividing said portions, an articulated tab having a root portion depending from a lower part of the upper body portion and also having a securing portion separated from the root portion by a generally horizontal fold line, a sheet-like lower body portion zontally with the aforesaid frangible section, and the part of the prop means below its associated frangible section and said seat portraying portion being removable from the device along said frangible sections to adapt said device for resting upon a supporting surface While the lower body portion projects over and downwardly from an edge thereof.

EDWARD F. BLECHTA. 

